Synopsis: Alex (Gael García Bernal) and Nica (Hani Furstenberg) are young, in love and engaged to be married. We meet them in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia, where they embark on a pre-marital hiking trip. They hire a local guide, Dato (Bidzina Gujabidze), and trek into the wilderness. The vast landscape has a craggy beauty, as well as an odd sense of foreboding to which the young couple initially seems immune. Walking for hours on end, the travellers occasionally talk, sing or play word games, but more often they allow their surroundings to envelop them in silence. We come to know this couple and the full spectrum of their relationship through nuance and detail, subtle negotiation and exhilarating physicality. Then something occurs: a gesture almost missed, a moment that can’t be undone but changes everything. This single instance rocks the foundation of Alex and Nica’s relationship, and challenges everything they believed about each other. All the while Dato is nearby, a witness to everything that occurs. As their travels continue, Dato’s presence becomes more important. Alex and Nica alternatively turn to him when they are not comfortable being with each other. [Synopsis courtesy of TIFF]
Anne Thompson and TOH! writers Sophia Savage, Beth Hanna, Matt Mueller, Matt Brennan and more share their Top Ten Films of 2012. While there are such shared likes as "Beasts of the Southern Wild," "Silver Linings Playbook," "Moonrise Kingdom," "Argo," "Zero Dark Thirty," "Amour," "Lincoln" and "Flig...
Read More »After successful bows at the Locarno, Toronto and New York film festivals, Julia Loktev's acclaimed drama "The Loneliest Planet" has been picked up for North American distribution by Sundance Selects. Sister division IFC Films released her last film, "Day Night Day Night."
Read More »Another year, another list. While the industry is in the midst of pricey marketing campaigns for awards contenders -- dominated this time by studios with the wherewithal to position their smart fall season product as the definitive movies of the year -- critics get to play a different game. Despite ...
Read More »While "Cloud Atlas" gets all the attention this weekend (good and bad), several other films are worth checking out for those not interesting in spending nearly three hours watching movie stars play multiple parts (races, genders, etc) to a mostly unsatisfying conclusion. While ambitious an...
Read More »This weekly column is intended to provide reviews of nearly every new indie release (and in certain cases studio films), including some VOD titles. Specific release dates and locations follow each review.
Read More »